Meet the talented and charming Latha Venkat. She was born to K.N. Ramaswamy who served as the Director of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan and Kamala Ramaswamy who was a singer and supporter of art. She has two younger siblings- sisters Kala Anand and Mala Satish.
Latha did her schooling at The Children’s Garden School and completed her graduation in English Literature at Ethiraj College. She followed it up with a PG Diploma in Public Relations and Advertising.
Her life partner K. Venkitachalam is a retired FMCG professional who is currently the Deputy Director of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. They have been blessed with a daughter and twin sons who are into fields of their interest.
Armed with 30 plus years of experience in senior positions at various organizations including the prestigious post of Executive Director of IIT Madras Alumni Association and CEO of IIT Bombay Alumni Association, Latha currently works for an NGO.
Right from her childhood, she took to stage as a duck takes to water and excelled in it. She loved acting and it came naturally to her. She remembers playing lead roles in dramas, plays and theatre both in school and in college.
Latha credits her mother who motivated her to put her talents to use. As the stage is where her heart is, she never missed a single play. It was only after her mother passed away in 2017, it dawned on Latha that she should take her mother’s words seriously and it was at that moment that she put her foot forward and got back to stage to start doing plays, advertisements and short films.
She recently acted in Girish Karnad’s play ‘’Broken Images’’. She played the role of Shabana Azmi in the Tamil version titled ‘’Anniyal’’ which is a 80 minute monologue. Her plays have been staged throughout the country and she has received a lot of appreciation for her acting skills.
Latha also featured in some webseries, of JFW titled ‘’Chennaikku Pudusu’’, in ‘’Valiamai Tharayo’’ streamed on Vikatan TV and in ‘’Sweet Karam Coffee’’ streamed on Amazon Prime.
Some notable movies that she performed in include ‘’Darala Prabhu Bhoomika’’, ‘’Writer Navarasa’’, ‘’Kathuvakkule Rendu Kaadhal’’ and ‘’Kodiyil Oruvan’’. She also played a part in Bombay Gnanam’s short film titled ‘’Entharo Mahanibavulu’’.
Besides this, she has modeled for advertisements like Tata tea, Parachute oil, Big Boss Promo, Swiggy Genie, SVS oil, Naana Naani and Prestige Mixie.
Her stage presence has won her awards like Best Actor in the Short and Sweet Festival 2024 and the Karthik Rajagopal Rolling Trophy for a promising lead actress in the play Anniyal from the Mylapore Arts Academy.
Blessed with the gift of the gab, Latha also anchors shows and the most notable and memorable show she has done till date was Ilaiyaraaja’s 76th birthday celebrations that had a large audience of around 50,000 people.
A person who loves what she is doing, she never feels the need to unwind. Her work involves event management and according to her, there is no work stress whatsoever.
During her free time, she enjoys watching movies and documentaries with a bowl of popcorn.
Her soul food is curd rice and Keerai Molagootal, a typical Palakkad Tamil Brahmin dish made with keerai is her favourite dish. She also relishes sweets like rasagollas, bengali sweets and sandesh. The all favourite ice cream too is on this list.
She likes to read books especially the ones by Ayn Rand and listen to music her favourite musician being Ilaiyaraaja.
When it comes to sport, she gets to watch more of football because of her two sons. At times she also follows badminton and tennis. Cricketer Kapil Dev is her childhood crush and on the whole, she loves watching all types of sport.
Besides a creative side, Latha also has a philanthropic side and sets aside a sum of money to pay for the education of children from poor families in her locality. She opines that education can change the fortune of a family. She imbibed this trait from her parents who lent a helping hand to people in the vicinity. Instead of going shopping and splurging on items one can do without, Latha gets happiness in putting that money aside to help the needy.
She proudly narrates that even her children have inherited this helping nature and how her twin sons gave free football coaching to government school children in Bengaluru.
In order to make the world a better place for the entire human race, she feels that each person can pitch in with a small contribution to change lives and that will make all the difference.
Juliana Sridhar is a lawyer and columnist
